A client stumped me the other day when he asked whether it was right that his fourteen year old son had been to see a doctor without him being present or even knowing about it. Was the doctor negligent or breaking the law?

I asked a colleague and ascertained that the age limit for seeing a doctor without a parent present is sixteen. There is a caveat that says if the patient is physically suffering or in need of emergency attention, then the age limit can be disregarded. It got me thinking about age limits.

As in England, the age of majority in Spain is eighteen. In Scotland it is sixteen. That is the age when a person attains the status of an adult with the right to make legal choices for themselves. In practice this mainly refers to contract law but also applies to voting. Contracts or agreements with someone below the age of majority are not valid.

But much younger age limits apply for all sorts of other activities. Some of these are lower than Britain’s. The age of consent for straight and gay sex is thirteen for example. The minimum age for marriage is the same as Britain i.e. sixteen with parental consent and eighteen without it, though marriage at fourteen is possible with court permission. That is still more conservative than the Lebanon where it is nine for girls.

One of the most contentious age limits in Spain is the ever sensitive topic of abortion. The law always used to be that abortion required parental consent up to eighteen. The government has introduced a new law which takes effect this July lowering this to sixteen on condition that children inform their parents. Children can have plastic surgery from sixteen already.

The alcoholic drinking age is eighteen but this is not well enforced. Surveys suggest that three out of four attempts by the underaged to buy alcohol in Spain are successful. Galicia and the Asturias have plumped for a lower minimum of sixteen in any case. The age at which it is legal to buy tobacco is eighteen but there are no restrictions on vending machines which are ubiquitous and accessible.

The minimum age someone can legally work is sixteen but under eighteens living with their parents need their permission. Unlike the UK it does not appear there are exceptions for certain light, part time jobs, like paper rounds.

You have to be sixteen to run with the bulls like they do in Pamplona. There is no national minimum age for just attending a bullfight and kids often go with their parents. Bullfighting schools accept trainee matadors from the age of twelve.

Finally, driving. The age for taking a moped out onto public roads is fourteen, though set to rise to fifteen this September. Teenagers have to wait until eighteen to drive a car. The age when the Spanish are first allowed to use the car’s indicators has yet to be determined.